Vmabus2, bleed me? Please. You're too much of a coward to even say something like that to my face. If you're going to make death threats against someone:

1) At least make them original. Listening to the unimaginative bores me.

2)Don't try to pretend that you are tough or threatening when you're squatting like a coward from a safe position.

3)Actually make it something that you can back up. If you said that you were going to slightly inconvenience me, that I might believe. Or if you were going to be a minor annoyance maybe. But that's about as far as I would believe coming from you.

Alzael, thanks for your response. Like I said, I was asking a question. Admittedly, I am a newby and cannot be rash and rush to any conclusions. You have to concede it can get difficult if there is not some patience and tolerance on both sides. I don't want some religious nutbag coming on here and telling you that they think you're evil and going to evil or acting like a douche. Similarly, I don't want to come on here and have 25 people (embellishment obviously) calling me a "liar" (as one person did) or "ignorant and not reading the Bible" (which is tacky and not fruitful) or taking my quotes and going crazy with the conclusions and the like.Most of my really good friends are either agnostic or atheist. Some of them I have incredible conversations with about lots of things but there are a few that it's just not possible to talk about religion. If you want to ask me questions about what I believe, and I can only speak for myself, I want to answer those questions but I also have questions as well. I will be honest. I have nothing to hide. I grew up in a loving home and was taught Christianity and I got a History degree with a Philosophy minor so at some point, things didn't make a lot of sense. But I came back to my faith through a number of factors and I cannot shy away from what I find.I love my life and I hope everyone on here has an awesome life.

Let me point something out to you, lander. This is a discussion forum. That is it's purpose more-so than just being an atheist hang-out. Here's the thing though, the only thing that most of the posters care here is the strength of your arguments. This has nothing to do with you being a theist. It is something that everyone is held to. This is why the forum rules themselves declare that ideas must be supported with evidence and assertions backed up. The claims that you make will be scrutinized accordingly, just as we analyze the claims of our fellow atheists as well. They will also be treated accordingly. As a person you'll generally be shown the same respect and tolerance that you demonstrate as well. However your ideas will be looked at and, if found wanting, will be criticized. Because ideas should never be respected if they don't deserve it. Again, I want to make this clear, this is what happens with everyone on this forum. It is not because you happen to a theist, it's because you're on a forum designed for discussing and analyzing ideas. If you look around at the threads you'll see that we go through this amongst ourselves without theists around as well. I've had my ideas battered as well when they were bad.

As for answering all the posts, I would recommend that you don't. You're not expected to jump through a hoop and respond to every single point. However responding to the salient points would be appreciated. If you need time to get back to the poster you can always ask, were good about that. Just tell that person you have too much to deal with but you'll get to them. There are also debate rooms if you want to limit it to a one on one discussion with someone.

And if you have questions, like you said you did, you can always start your own thread and ask them of us. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here who could answer you.

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"I drank what?!"- Socrates

"Dying for something when you know you'll be resurrected is not a sacrifice.It's a parlour trick."- an aquaintance

Philip of Macedon: (via messenger) If we enter Sparta, we will raze all your buildings and ravage all your women.Spartan Reply: If.

Okay, if you want to explain that there was at some point that nothing was here and that somehow something came from nothing, I am all ears (ahem...all eyes in this instance). What was originally here?

No one knows. However that does not invalidate the possibility of the postion, although you have it slightly wrong. Technically it's unlikely that there is such a thing as "nothing" (though it's not impossible). What we would call 'nothing' isn't really, and within that nothing we do know that there are particles which pop into existence at random and from nowhere.

I would point out though, that your own position is closer to a 'something coming from nothing' paradigm.

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"I drank what?!"- Socrates

"Dying for something when you know you'll be resurrected is not a sacrifice.It's a parlour trick."- an aquaintance

Philip of Macedon: (via messenger) If we enter Sparta, we will raze all your buildings and ravage all your women.Spartan Reply: If.

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

You said you met the author of the bible, not the faith String. Jesus is not the author of the bible. There isn't a single word in the bible written by Jesus. He may be the mythological basis for your faith, but he is not the author of the bible. To say Jesus is the author of your faith is a word game that insinuates he wrote the bible, but historians (including Christian historians) will tell you this is false. Now, if you want to say something like "it's all context! Of course he didn't write it, he was the holy spirit within the authors!", then I will say you are playing word games and I will say "no, YOU have the context wrong. Jesus meant he is the author and FINISHER", meaning the faith was supposed to be finished with him!"

Jesus (if he existed) was an apocalpytic Jewish preacher, through and through. He didn't author faith; he followed the Jewish traditions. Future followers ran with some teachings that were attributed to the long dead Jesus, and formed their own new religion around his "story". He authored nothing. If he even existed at all, then in all likelyhood, he couldn't read or write to begin with.

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Whenever events that are purported to occur in our best interest are as numerous as the events that will just as soon kill us, then intent is hard, if not impossible to assert. NDT

I would love to see the data of said lab experiments, which is not to be flippant or dismissive about your point (I mean I really would like to see the data out of my own desire to see it and study it, etc).

Our study had 2 main findings. First, intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred after CABG. Second, patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer.

Second, patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer.

This part interests me greatly. Was it a reverse placebo effect?

The mind can do some amazing things, whether we want it to or not.

Possibly related anecdote: as I was being wheeled in to get major surgery, a nurse said to me, in a very sad voice, "God bless you." I started wondering why she thought I needed her god's blessing. I started to freak out. What did she know? Was my condition worse than I thought? Was the surgeon knocking back martinis in the break room? What? What?

I was fine before she had said that and then I was tense and unnerved. That nurse's "blessing" could have contributed to my surgery having a worse outcome than otherwise. And I am not even religious. It might be even more significant if the patient really thought that god was needed to help survive the surgery.

They say Jesus is the author, yet Jesus himself never said that he wrote on that book. It is all hear-say, and so is God's word. The Bible is the Word of God, according to the people who wrote it. Never has God said in the book, "Yes, I wrote all this, and so did my son."

I never said that Jesus or God wrote anything, I never claimed all of the writters of the Sciptures are all know, though many of them are. The Bible says Jesus is the Author of our faith. I believe one can have dictation written down and still be the author. He told the disciple John to write down His words in the book of Revelation. God gave Moses instructions for the Israelite to follow and that Moses recorded them.

The Bible states in 2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

You claim God's Word is all hear say and of course you can prove that statement. This no proof of anything but I find it interesting that three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of God or inspired by the word of God, according to a trio of Gallup surveys, with only 19 percent saying the Good Book is a compendium of myth and legend. I think I'll stick with the three-quarters .

This no proof of anything but I find it interesting that three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of God or inspired by the word of God, according to a trio of Gallup surveys, with only 19 percent saying the Good Book is a compendium of myth and legend. I think I'll stick with the three-quarters .

How many people believe in something is irrelevant. That's fallacy is called the argumentum ad populum.

Besides, your argument fails because two thirds of the planet do not believe in Jesus or the god of Christianity.

You claim God's Word is all hear say and of course you can prove that statement. This no proof of anything but I find it interesting that three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of God or inspired by the word of God, according to a trio of Gallup surveys, with only 19 percent saying the Good Book is a compendium of myth and legend. I think I'll stick with the three-quarters .

Do you not realize that just a few hundred years ago, you would have believed the earth was flat? And that the Sun orbited the earth? Or that demons caused illness, and that bleeding someone was the way to cure disease? Do any of those sound reasonable to you?

He told the disciple John to write down His words in the book of Revelation.

You mean he copied texts from Zoroastrianism, said they were his and told John to write them down. You do realize that all of Revelations is a copy of religious texts from a much, much older religion right? Along with most of Christianity and Jeudaism.

No, of course you don't. Why would you ever pay attention to history, facts, and knowledge?

The Bible states in 2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The book that says that it was written by god, was written by god because it says that it was written by god............I'm just going to take a minute and allow everyone here to fully appreciate the utter stupidity of this..............................................................ok, is everyone done?

This no proof of anything but I find it interesting that three-quarters of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of God or inspired by the word of God, according to a trio of Gallup surveys, with only 19 percent saying the Good Book is a compendium of myth and legend. I think I'll stick with the three-quarters .

If you want to go that route, only about three thirds of the world population believe in your god. This isn't even counting the many billions of people who lived before two thousand years ago that didn't worship your god before the bible was ever written. So even using your own logic you come out looking ridiculous. This should seriously be teaching you something.

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"I drank what?!"- Socrates

"Dying for something when you know you'll be resurrected is not a sacrifice.It's a parlour trick."- an aquaintance

Philip of Macedon: (via messenger) If we enter Sparta, we will raze all your buildings and ravage all your women.Spartan Reply: If.

Do you not realize that just a few hundred years ago, you would have believed the earth was flat? And that the Sun orbited the earth? Or that demons caused illness, and that bleeding someone was the way to cure disease? Do any of those sound reasonable to you?

Just waiting for that atheist card to be pulled. I haven't heard it thousands of times but I've heard it a lot. I would have never believed that about bleeding people because the Bible says that life is in the blood. Never would have believed a flat earth because It talks about the circle of the earth. And all of that has been proven false, except for the demons. Can you prove that the bible is a bunch of myths?

We are not required to prove anything. You are making the positive claim--that a book started by people for whom the wheelbarrow was emergent technology--has facts and truths about reality.

We make no claims at all.

The burden of proof is on you.

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Sheldon: Ever since you started having regular intercourse your mind has lost its edge. You should reflect on that.Leonard: Well, Einstein had a busy sex life.Sheldon: Yes, but he never unified gravity with the other forces. If he hadn't been such a hounddog we'd all have time machines.

Do you not realize that just a few hundred years ago, you would have believed the earth was flat? And that the Sun orbited the earth? Or that demons caused illness, and that bleeding someone was the way to cure disease? Do any of those sound reasonable to you?

Just waiting for that atheist card to be pulled. I haven't heard it thousands of times but I've heard it a lot. And all of that has been proven false, except for the demons. Can you prove that the bible is a bunch of myths?

What's an atheist card? I simply showed you that an argument from popularity is not necessarily a good one.

Can you prove that the bible is not a bunch of myths? Can you prove I dont have an invisible giant pink unicorn in my closet? Can you prove that you can think clearly?

The Bible states in 2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is God breathed.... blah blah.

The Chronicles of Narnia is inspired by God. The Bible is the very word of God, according to it. There is a difference between "inspired" and "God breathed." Unless, of course, you also believe in Aslan.

Reproof & Correction, for instruction in righteousness: Earth is Flat, Menstration and giving birth are sins, Rape is a crime of theft against the father, Houses get plagues, Pi = 3, Pigeon[1] blood cures Leprosy, Store houses for Rain and Snow. A place the Lightning dwells. Above the sun and moon, above the solid canvas that is the sky, a dome[2] with windows that allow the 'waters above' to pass thru and become rain. Magical Potion that reveals whether wife is sleeping around (Num 5).

The Ark has only be built at 1/2 scale, and even then requires Steel Bracing.

Edit: the Earth is close to a Sphere, ie. a Ball. The Earth is not a Circle, ie. A plate. Climb a high mountain or go to the top of a tall building. Turn 360 degrees. What shape is the Horizon in? A Circle. Clearly something only an "All-Knowing" God would know, eh? They also thought, if you went high enough you would see the Whole world. Again, Flat.